Thursday, October 11, 2007

The last pack from Target is 2004 Authentix, another one of Fleer's many goofy ass oddball sets. The gimmick on this one is that is has a ticket stub theme. The cards look like tickets, the inserts look like tickets, and the relics and rookies have tiny replica tickets embedded in them. Unlike the Autowhatsis pack I got there's a method behind my madness behind buying this one. The base cards are actually perforated like a real ticket stub and I wanted to take the stinkeroo from the pack and see if I could actually tear it. The odds of this being Ben Henry's "perfect pack" are pretty darn slim, so I figure at least one of the cards has to be terrible enough to rip in half.

Muahahahaha! The first card in the pack is the perfect victim for my evil experiment. No, not the checklist card, although it is oddly interesting in its own right. First, the checklist includes a "Yankees Extended set" listing. These extended set cards came in a specially marked team box that included a bonus pack with the extended cards and an insert card of players from that team. I snagged a Braves box a few years ago, I think there was also a Mariners box and maybe one or two more teams. The checklist only lists the Yankees extended cards though. Perhaps this pack is from one of those boxes? The other interesting thing about the checklist is that after the regular and extended set cards it only lists the two insert sets. The back of the card is actually blank with only the standard copyright stuff. After a few years of Topps checklists that list every single parallel, mirror set, autograph, relic, and Generation Now card - all in a font size that must be read with an electron microscope - seeing this minimalist checklist is refreshing.

I was chagrined by the first real card in the pack. Tom "First Inning Flameout" Glavine with a big ugly foil Mets logo in the background. I checked the boxscore of the game listed on the card and the Braves got beat by Steve Trachsel in the Mets' home opener when Mike Hampton went all kerflooey. Oh yass, the perforations shall be tested on this card. The rest of the pack is awesome though. We have a whole mess o' minor stars here. Anderson, Rolen and a pair from the 'Stros. My first little league team was the Astros, so I've always had a soft spot for them (except during that 18-inning playoff game, guuuh). Besides, Oswalt has anchored my fantasy rotation several times. The real bombshell is the jersey card. I didn't know jersey cards were allowed in the el cheapo packs. Someone in quality control is going to get fired at the repack factory. Plus it's freakin' Chipper Jones! Even the tiny fake ticket embedded in the card has Chipper's mug on it. Brilliant! I checked back on Baseball-reference for the box score for that ticket. CURSES! Beaten by Glavine on Opening day! Chipper's jersey card is the more common 'ripped' version of the card. Tom's card is also about to become a 'ripped' version.

That worked out pretty well actually. AND IT FELT SO GOOD. Just make sure you fold on the perfs before ripping. My only complaint is that the perforations don't actually go all the way through the card so you don't get that nice scalloped effect. Hmm, I think I have a pair of those fancy deckle edge scissors around the house somewhere...